Veteran politician and DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang is confident that the Federal Opposition would have little trouble appointing a new leader from among the ranks of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, after the recent incarceration of current Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Lim, who himself had been Opposition leader twice, most recently for a 24-year term from 1975 to 1999, namechecked young luminaries from the PR fold, including his own son, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
“In DAP, there is Lim Guan Eng and other young but tested DAP leaders; in PKR there are Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Azmin Ali, Nurul Izzah; and in PAS there is Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and a new generation of PAS leaders,” he said yesterday, as quoted by Astro Awani.
He added, however, that it was too early to talk about who would take over the reigns for now, as Anwar was still the member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh and was still the Parliamentary Opposition leader.
He urged Pakatan leaders to focus their attention on saving the PR coalition, and to discourage internal efforts to destabilise and break down the coalition.
Lim said the Pakatan Rakyat was facing its most daunting crisis in its seven-year history, following the imprisonment of Anwar on a sodomy charge, and the death of PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat last week.
He also reminded PR leaders to continue sticking to the PR Common Policy Framework binding all three parties – DAP, PKR, and PAS – to the principle of mutual consensus before putting forth a new policy or issue as representative of the entire coalition.
